that hurt? are the democrats getting ready to stage an upset? we want to welcome our viewers in the united states and around the world. i'm wolf blitzer, you're in "the situation room." announcer: this is cnn breaking news. rick gates long time deputy to former trump campaign chairman paul manafort is cross examined with his credibility under attack by manafort's lawyer. will talk about that and more with the top democrat on the house judiciary committee and the former homeland security adviser to president obama lisa monaco and our correspondents and analyses are standing by. first let's go to jim sciutto who's outside the courthouse in alexandria, virginia. the trial just ended at least for this day. >> reporter: that's right, wolf.

really, the focus today by paul manafort's attorneys is to attack the credibility of rick gates as the primary witness against paul manafort, repeatedly asking the question, why the jury should trust rick gates since he has lied before, specifically, in fact, pleading guilty of lying to the special counsel's office. rick gates replying to that saying, i'm taking responsibility now. i'm trying to make a change but the defendant attorney pressing and pressing repeatedly during that exchange. rick gates has said he has spoken with the special counsel's office sum 20 times. the focus today really from gates is a accounting for providing details on the criminal scheme that he says he and paul manafort developed together. tonight star witness rick gates back on the stand admitting during a harsh cross-examination to having an extra marital

affair a decade ago but denying accusations by paul manafort's lawyer that he was embezzling money in order to fund his affair and what the defense attorney referred to as a secret life in london and elsewhere. gates also testified today that two weeks after donald trump's election, paul manafort recommended that his banker steven call become secretary of the army. caulk allegedly loaned manafort money under false details. gates said how broke manafort was when he joined the trump team. manafort's consulting firm had no clients then and that they were at the time trying to secure another political consulting contract in the ukraine, but had not yet been able to. in a 2015 email exchange, manafort was clearly frustrated. wtf manafort wrote to gates. how could i be blindsided like this, manafort said?

this after learning that taxes he was due to pay were much higher than he had anticipated. gates testified that manafort made more than $5 million between 2011 and 2012 doing consulting work for ukrainian billionaire. gates went into detail about how shell companies were used to move money into hidden accounts in cyprus. in one instance according to gates, a payment supported lobbying in the united states. gates state that had manafort reported some of the payments to u.s. tax officials as loans, though they were, in fact, income adding that manafort was, quote, trying to decrease his taxable income. prosecutors demonstrated that manafort directed these activitiactivit activities through emails. there were hundreds of these gates said in court adding, quote, typical practice was mr.

manafort would send me a list of wire requests. gates admit that had he used information provided by manafort to create invoices for fake amounts of money but the money never went to the vendors, instead it went to the banks. the purpose of this, according to gates, so that the wire transfers would not be recorded on u.s. business records. nonetheless, prosecutors elicited testimony from mr. gates and from one of mr. manafort's accountants that tied manafort more closely to russia. the accountant testified that in 2006 mr. manafort received a $10 million loan from a russian oligarch close to president vladimir putin. she said she saw no evidence the loan was ever repaid. the cross-examination today getting very personal at times. gates forced to admit that more than a decade ago he had an

affair, that he financed this affair first class travel to london and an apartment in london but he insisted he did not use stolen money to finance the affair. the defense attorney pressing him to know about this secret life as the defense attorney described it, whether his wife knew about it. gates said he did and throughout wolf gates saying that now, he is doing his best to take responsibility for all these things, that in a sense in essence is his argument to the jury as to why he should be believed now as the accounts what he says are paul manafort's alleged crime. >> jim sciutto, thanks so much for that report. president trump meanwhile is hosting a group of ceos at his new jersey golf club later tonight while his lawyers weigh whether he should talk to the special counsel robert mueller. let's go to our chief white house correspondent jim acosta, he's in new jersey for us. "the washington post" now reporting that giuliani's lawyer is reluctant to let the president be questioned about obstruction of justice.

>> reporter: that's right, wolf. a lot of concerns insides the president's legal team as to what questions could be asked. the president is expected to draegs those ceos at that dinner at his golf club within the next hour or so. that event has just been opened up to the cameras so we may get to see a bit of what the president has to say. we can expect him to talk up the economy, of course. wolf, he's not been talking to reporters as he's been holed up in his golf course in new jersey. the president, though, is tweeting his support to some of his favorite candidates on the ballot today. an early test on whether he'll help or hurt the republicans in upcoming midterms. as president trump is taking shelter inside his new jersey golf course away from the president, an unmakeable president from the man overseeing the russian investigation, rod rosenstein, who told a group of law enforcement officials their job is to uphold the law regardless

of politics. >> it's our duty to enforce the laws and follow the facts wherever they may lead and we need to ensure that our decisions are never influenced by political considerations. >> reporter: the president's legal team says it's nearing a decision on whether president trump will sit down with robert mueller. senator lindsey graham who just played golf with the president advised him to ride out the probe. did trump ask that question? he must've mentioned that about 20 times. i want to win in november. if we stop the mueller probe tomorrow, you wouldn't be able to talk about anything else. >> i would basically say, mr. president, we're not going to let you anywhere near robert mueller. he knows a lot more about this this case, he's interviewed a lot more witnesses -- >> reporter: a conservative judge was hardly reading from white house talking points when he suggested donald trump jr. esmeeting with the russians in 2016 could amount to a criminal conspiracy. a meeting the president admits

was aimed at obtaining dirt on hillary clinton. >> there are federal statutes that prohibit receiving something of value from a foreign national, foreign entity or foreign government, so was the purpose of this meeting to receive something of value? that's something robert mueller will have to look at. >> laura ingraham tried to ask don jr. about the meeting the call was cut off. >> do you want any comments on that, donnie? they're hitting you on that for contradictions, they're calling it worse than contradictions. >> hello? >> what is your reaction to all that? we'll see if we can reconnect with donald trump jr. on this because we can't seem to hear him. >> he was back on the line to say his russian encounter didn't amount to much. >> 20 minutes meeting, it ended up being about essentially nothing that was relevant to any of these things and that's all it is and that's all they've got. >> reporter: if that's the case, other trump allies argue there is no need to worry.

>> what has them riled up is they feel cornered and it's not clear to me they're necessarily cornered as much as there's a fact finding expedition. >> reporter: the president has turned his attention to special elections across the country, from kansas where a fellow hard liner on immigration is running for governor to ohio where the gop candidate appears vulnerable in a district mr. trump himself won by 11 points. >> we must elect more republicans and we must elect troy balderson. we have to elect troy. so get your friends, get your neighbors, get your family and get out and vote for troy on tuesday. >> reporter: democrats smell an upset so former vice president joe biden has entered the fray with a last minute robo-call. >> electing danny to congress puts us one step closer to taking back the house and making sure we have leaders in washington who will fight for our values, ohio values.

>> reporter: now some disappointing results for the president on this election night could begin to change the calculus in washington that mr. trump's negatives are weighing down their chances of gaining control. that could be magnified further if the mueller probe moves closer to the white house. the president seems to be sounding out people as he talks to them over at his golf course about what he should do about the mueller investigation. it'll be interesting to see if he does indeed do more of that later on this evening when he meets with those ceos at his golf course, wolf? >> thank you. let's get some more on all of this. jerry nadler of new york is joining us. he's the top democrat, the ranking member of the house judiciary committee. thank you so much for joining us. >> thank you. >> do you believe robert mueller should agree to an interview with the president without questions, specific questions, being asked about obstruction of justice? >> i think mueller should insist

on asking the president any questions that he thinks relevant to his investigation, only he knows where the investigation is leading, only he knows what the evidence he already has is and only he can make that decision and the president is duty bound to answer any questions that the special prosecutor, special counsel, may ask. >> the president could drag this all out past the midterm elections in november, there's a good chance that democrats, they could win back the majority in the house of representatives which would make you the chairman of the house judiciary committee. as chairman, what actions would you take if the president refuses to comply with mueller's request for an interview? >> if the president refuses to comply with mueller's request for an interview, i would presume mueller would issue a subpoena. there's well defined case law from the nixon case that paula jones case with clinton that he would get the subpoena and he would answer. now, it's beyond imagination that the president would defy a

subpoena from the court. he could appeal it, but if the court makes a final decision then he must comply with the subpoena. he would have to. >> that could go all the way to the supreme court for a decision, right? >> it could, although i think it's a fairly open and shut case that would go very rapidly, i would think. >> your colleague told me yesterday he fears that the makeup, the current makeup of the supreme court could bode well for the president. >> that's speculation. it might. the fact is the nixon case was an 8-0 decision with four republican appointees, the case with bill clinton, the paula jones was pretty unanimous decision as i recall. unless the court is really changed to where it wants to be and wants to say the president's above the law, i don't see that as likely that they wouldn't grant the subpoena. >> some members of your party, the democratic party, they want to impeachment to be on the

table. would you consider that if you were the chairman of the house judiciary committee? >> i think that it's too early to say. we have to see what the special counsel comes up with what evidence he has and what high crimes and misdemeanors seem provable against the president, if any. it's very irresponsible to start impeachment if you don't have the material. it's probably irresponsible to not to do it if you do. >> you want to wait until mueller finishes the investigation and then make a decision. >> i think that's clear. >> according to the "the wall street journal," the president's long time former attorney and fixer michael cohen is being investigated right now for potential tax fraud. if charged, that could push him to cooperate with mueller's russia probe. do you think he could be a key witness? >> he might. one thing we have to realize is that what the public knows, what you and i know about this investigation is probably a fraction of what mueller knows

at this point. we don't know a lot of the testimony, et cetera. it's certainly conceivable that cohen who is very close to the president in many ways for a long time could be a key witness. and particular, for example, as i recall, there is a statement or evidence or tape or something that cohen said that he was present, along with others, unnamed others, when the president agreed to that june 16th meeting in trump tower and that would be key testimony if that's the case. >> as far as we know, mueller hasn't yet interviewed michael cohen, do you think mueller needs cohen's testimony? >> that i don't know, because we don't know what he has already. >> well, let me ask you a final question while i have you. the election tonight the special election in ohio, how do you think the democrats are going to do? >> well, i think, you know, this is i think -- this is a district

that trump carried by 13 or 14 points. it's a district that's been republicans since 1982 and heavily so and the very fact that danny o'connor the democratic candidate is depending on the poll 1 point up or down is extraordinary. it shows that the democrats are way overperforming and if he wins it'll be a tremendous victory. if he comes close, that will be a tremendous victory, an indication of -- that we're likely to carry the house. >> the president carried that district by 11 points, but it's been about 30 years since a democrat represented that congressional district. >> if we -- if the democratic candidate comes close or wins, that shows a massive shift in the republican district toward the democrats and it would be right in line with what we've seen in other special elections some of which we've lost, but in all of which we've way overperformed in prior years and if we do that with the same percentages in november, we'll

win a great victory. >> let's see what happens. the polls close at 7:30 p.m. eastern in ohio. thank you for joining us. >> thank you. we'll have more on the possible trump/mueller interview if negotiations were to fall apart, though, could it wind up before the supreme court? we'll have more on the president's former lawyer and fixer, "the wall street journal" now reporting that michael cohen is being investigated for tax fraud. to get your windshield fixed. with safelite, you can see exactly when we'll be there. saving you time for what you love most. >> kids: whoa! >> kids vo: ♪ safelite repair, safelite replace ♪

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lawyer rudy giuliani is reluctant to allow questions about obstruction of justice should the president be interviewed by the special counsel robert mueller. the president's legal team says it will have a decision on a possible interview soon. let's get some more from lisa monaco, she's the former homeland security and counterterrorism adviser to president obama. thank you very much for coming in. you're now a cnn national security analyst. if they can't ask the president questions about obstruction of justice, should there still be an interview? should mueller agree to that? >> what you're seeing on the president's lawyers' part is some posturing about these negotiations. they've now been going on if reports are accurate for months and what you're seeing from director mueller and his team is an effort to proceed in good faith to try and get information about the events that took place, both before and during the initial part of the president's term. so i think both sides are engaging in this. i think director mueller's

looking to do this in good faith and trying to get as full a picture and set of facts as he can. >> but if the interview negotiations fall apart, this could potentially, if there's a subpoena, wind up before the u.s. supreme court, what happens then? >> it could and that's the $50,000 question, right? there's a number of variables, one of which is the confirmation of the nominee judge brett kavanaugh to go up to the supreme court. i think, you know, congressman nadler had it right. there's pretty clear precedent here, notably with president clinton, a sitting president having to honor a subpoena. now that was in a civil case where the government's interests are actually less significant than in a criminal case. so i think what you'll see here is this play out and robert mueller and his team will proceed in good faith to try and assemble all the facts. >> what if the supreme court were to rule in the president's favor? >> i think it's too soon to speculate on that.

i think robert mueller and his team will put together certainly a report, that's what the special counsel regulations call for, then it will be up to deputy attorney general rod rosenstein, acting attorney general in this matter because of jeff sessions's recusal and it'll be up to him to determine how much of that report to make public. >> i want to get your thoughts on current u.s. efforts to make sure there's no russian meddling in the midterm elections coming up in november. we saw a big show of force over at the white house the other day. the president wasn't there but he authorized it. he gave the green light. is enough being done right now? >> look, i think that show of force last week was necessary, it was important and it was overdue. i think it's also notable, wolf, that you saw included in that assembly in the briefing room was fbi director chris wray and it is exceptionally rare for an fbi director to appear in the briefing room and to do anything in front of a podium that's

other than the department of justice or the fbi. so that was i think quite notable and it was a real show of force and it was important. is the administration doing enough? in my view, no. i think there needs to be a unified voice. the president needs to lend his voice to this to make sure that there's no schism between him and his team. there should be a cybersecurity coordinator, they should restore that position in the white house so there's somebody in the white house who is coordinating all of this, a whole of government effort. there needs to be more funding for the state to sure up their election security and systems and, frankly, there needs to be a unified view and more work and information exchanged with the social media companies. >> we heard the director of national intelligence dan coats say at that briefing that he wasn't in a position to, quote, understand fully what happened at the summit in helsinki between president trump and vladimir putin. shouldn't the top intelligence

officer in the u.s. government be fully aware of everything that happened during that meeting? >> yeah. wolf, this is a real head snapper. this -- the statement from dan coats last week that he did not understand, was not in a position to know what transpired in that nearly two hour meeting between president trump and our main adversary vladimir putin is really astonishing and, frankly, what it also says to me is, it was a real missed opportunity. normally what you would see is first of all, there would be other officials in that room, people who can record what's going on, who can take notes, who can feed that back to our intelligence community, to our russia analyst and incorporate that in our plans and our thinking going forward. and here we've clearly missed that opportunity. >> i want to get your thoughts on the manafort trial that's under way right now in alexandria, virginia. you worked at one point in your life as a federal prosecutor. you've also worked with robert mueller. what do you make of the

testimony of this star witness that's been there for the last couple days, rick gates, manafort's former deputy? >> i was the federal prosecutor as you mentioned and i have put big high stakes cooperators on the stand and that's what we're seeing now from mueller's team and these prosecutors are people who have done this before, they've put cooperating witnesses on the stand. i think what you're seeing them do is, one, use rick gates's testimony to corroborate other evidence that's already been put in and, two, very importantly, to bring the jury inside the scheme that he, by his own admission, rick gates, has done with paul manafort and describe the crimes they committed together. a lot has been talked about about the defense now trying to sully rick gates's testimony and his credibility. as a prosecutor, i didn't care if a jury liked my cooperating witness, i only cared that they believed him and he has every

incentive to tell the truth here because he gets no benefit of any deal with the prosecutors unless he tells the complete truth. >> if he lies he's in deep, deep trouble. >> that's right. >> thank you very much for coming in. >> thanks. just ahead, federal investigators wrap up pressure on president trump's former lawyer an fixer michael cohen. what does it mean for him and for the president? plus, live update on what's now the largest fire in california history in what president trump gets wrong about the state's ongoing fire disaster.

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tonight sources are telling cnn that federal prosecutors investigating president trump's former personal attorney michael cohen have subpoenaed his former accountant and are examining financial institutions made loans to cohen. he's under investigation for tax fraud. let's dig deeper with our correspondents and analysts dana bash, what do you make of these latest legal developments? >> look, it goes without saying that for the federal government to get a warrant, a judge to say yes to a warrant to raid somebody's home -- well, or the hotel they're living right now, somebody's office and take the amount of documents and recordings that the feds did with michael cohen it means that they really had a tip that there was something bad going on.

the fact of the matter is, that cnn's reporting as you mentioned that his former accountant is being investigated and "the wall street journal" saying that he is being investigated for tax fraud probably shouldn't be surprising in that these are broad angles that we've known that the feds were looking in to. i think if you take it up maybe to a higher level here, what is interesting is this reporting with the manafort/gates trial or manafort trial with gates testifying as the backdrop, it's a reminder that these are all people who probably would, now they're allegations, but if they end up getting convicted for things, maybe would have gone under the radar had they not ended up being involved with the now president of the united states who has a special counsel looking in to him. manafort, the feds were looking into him for a long time

apparently and never could get anything and now they do. >> i suspect there's a lot of people that will regret being involved with the president of the united states and they're paying a price for that right now. don lemon you're here in washington right now. thank you. what do you make of what's going on with michael cohen? what do you make of the pressure being put on him right now? what does it mean for him and the president? >> i know michael cohen and i know that it's tough on his family and him, but just think about it. it's been about 15, maybe 16 weeks since this raid on his home. michael cohen still has not been charged. he says to me that he's not guilty. but it has been 15 to 16 weeks. what this says to me when you look at both the cnn reporting and "the wall street journal," "the wall street journal" said being investigated for possible tax fraud, right, possible tax fraud. that's a big word. i don't think we should underestimate that and discount that word, the possibility of,

but i think it means that michael cohen is a treasure trove. he's a treasure trove of information from the president. if you read into the reporting where it says that they're looking at whether the banks or people who were in charge of doing loans, whether they did everything that they were supposed to do as they were giving michael cohen loans, i don't know if that says anything -- >> i think -- what my assessment is, what worries the president a lot right now is not only what michael cohen knows and if he flips and were to tell all but allen weissleberg, who's been involved for 40 years, he's been subpoenaed apparently to testify before a grand jury. >> it all comes back to the president. they want information on the president. they figured that weissleberg and michael cohen are the two best sources for that information but i just find it interesting that michael cohen has not been charged with anything yet and it's been quite a long time. i don't know what they're holding out for. maybe something. it's been a while.

>> shawn turner is with us as well. what does it say to you that robert mueller handed over the whole michael cohen case from his portfolio over to the u.s. attorney for the southern district of new york? >> you recall that the reason that the special counsel did that is because in thecourseof their investigation what robert mueller's team found was that michael cohen potentially engaged in activity that's would have been violation of law under the southern district of new york's jurisdiction. when he turned it over, that was because that was something that was outside of robert mueller's scope. for the southern district of new york, as they investigate this, if they were to find that there is evidence or information that could relate back to the special counsel scope, then it is theoretically possible that this could end up back in front of robert mueller and his team at some point down the line. >> that would be a significant development. michael cohen clearly is up set. he doesn't feel he was getting the backing of the president during these initial months of the investigation, that he was

effectively being mistreated. what do you think? how worried should the president be about what michael cohen might say? >> i think it's clear that prosecutors are trying to squeeze michael cohen with the hopes that he might flip and we've seen increasing signs that cohen might be willing to cooperate. i think the reason this is so concerning for president trump is that for years cohen acted not just as trump's personal attorney but his self-confessed fix it guy. he has been intimately involved in overseeing both the president's personal and professional dealings and he keeps -- has kept a lot of the president's secrets. i think that -- although this is separate from the investigation to russian interference in the election, it is worth pointing out as shawn did that any documents that were seized by the fbi in that raid that are relevant to mueller's investigation could be turned back to the special counsel and if cohen were to flip and he were to cooperate, any information that he provides to the southern district of new york, the u.s. attorney's office there, that could also be shared back with robert mueller and his team and we've seen the

president tweet about cohen certainly that his signal that he is very worried about what information he might have to offer. >> we've also seen the president tweet about you, don lemon. we'll take a quick break. there are enormous implications of what's going on right now. stick around guys. you always pay your insurance on time.

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we're back with our correspondents and our analysts. don lemon, you're here in washington. the president had that disgusting tweet the other day attacking you and lebron james. just walk us through how you reacted when you saw that and what is happened since? >> i didn't really -- i don't follow the president any more on twitter because it's too much and i find his tweets to be outrageous and i find them to be most of the time beneath the dignity of the office. i think that it's tough to sit here on television now and criticize the president. i think that we have more respect for the office than he does, so i didn't really know that he tweeted about me until my phone -- until people started saying, are you okay? oh, my gosh. i can't believe he's doing that and my response was, what are you talking about? and then they sent me a copy of what the president said about me and so i just thought about it for a little while and woke up the next morning and tweeted out what i said. who is -- who's the real dummy? is it someone who puts kids in classrooms as lebron james or

someone who puts kids in cages and separates their families at the border? and i stand by that. so i think it's awful. i think its disgusting. before i think this president traffics in racism. i do believe this president is a racist. i don't say that lightly. i think the evidence points to it and i did that on my program last night on my show. what he says about people of color, what he says about women, what he says about women and other people, he does, you know -- he's an equal opportunity offender but he also tramples over racial norms and sensitivi sensitivities. >> it started with congresswoman maxine waters before you, before lebron, he was going after her,

she was very critical of him. she was going after her saying she was low iq and he would ridicule her saying her iq was in the 60s. >> maxine waters has been in political life a lot longer than this president and will still be around when this president is out of office, so i think to call her a low iq individual is beneath the dignity of the office. we have to remember the president is supposed to be a statesman and statesman don't speak that way or write that way they don't conduct themselves that way. it would be -- it is incumbent upon the president to learn from his past mistakes and to try to correct them and to become a better person and better statesman, a better leader of all people, not just the people who voted for him. its incumbent upon the people in his own party to hold him to account because it's not up to me to hold him to account. i am not a lawmaker. i'm neither a democrat nor a republican. i'm not political. i simply give the facts. i did an interview with lebron

james. he shared his story. i think its incumbent upon the people, especially the people in washington to hold him to account. >> it is up to us to hold -- i know to hold our elected officials to account on the facts as you mentioned -- >> on the air, i'm talking about here in washington politically. >> i totally agree and i think the way that we can hold them to account in this particular discussion is lebron james it something and is doing something pretty remarkable that we would want all of the athletes that our children look up to to do, which is to give back to their community in a pretty amazing way, use their big fat salaries to do that and what don lemon is was bring that to the country and the world in the interview. yeah, lebron james made a statement not even using the president's -- specifically talking about the way that he's acting, but obviously about what the president has done with the nfl and that's his prerogative. and that's called discourse and

when you have anybody to respond to that with an attack, much less the president of the united states, it is important to call it out. >> go ahead. >> whenever the president makes comments we often spends a lot of time talking about the politics but it's also important to note that donald trump's views on race pre-date his political career. first of all, he launched his political career by questioning whether or not president obama, the first black president in the history of this country was actually born in the united states, but you think back to his time in new york in the early '70s, trump and his father, their company was sued in a racial discrimination lawsuit for a discriminating against african-american tenants. he took out the full page ad calling for the death penalty in the central park five case which, of course, those men were exonerated and yet trump continue today push the notion that they were somehow guilty and even on the campaign trail he tried to incite violence against black lives matter protesters and also suggested

that inner cities were war zones. we've seen enough evidence to support the notion that this is not just politics, perhaps this is what the president really thinks and believes. >> i think don used a very important word, he talked about racial norms and how the president is trampling on racial norms. there are people who harbor these kinds of views. what's really interesting is that prior to the president coming to office, our experience was that generally speaking people kept those views to themselves and what i think i want people to know is, as people of color can walk around and live their life, we are having a different experience as a result of the president setting a very different tone with regard to this sort of rhetoric. it's just important for people to know that this new tone, this new norm is having an impact on people that is unfair to a large portion of this country. >> when i saw what the president said about you, i remembered some of the interviews you've

actually done with donald trump. he's been on your show when he was a candidate earlier and i always thought that there was a mutually respectful relationship that you had with donald trump. >> let me go back before that. the last time i interviewed donald trump before he ran for office was the night that osama bin laden and it was before he was killed and we had a pretty -- we had a rou about the birther issue. it didn't get much pickup, he vowed he would never do an interview with me because he said i was racist, because i challenged him on an infactual statement -- >> that you're a racist? >> i was racist because the way i challenged him much in the way -- that i can't somehow be unbiased about an issue concerning race because i'm african-american. so he accused me of being racist. finally, he decided he would do an interview with me and my

producers intervened and we talked. he said, oh, my gosh, you're really g. i really expect you and he kept doing interviews with me subsequently after that, eight or nine of them. and then once he became president of the united states and you have to hold his feet to the fire, all of a sudden he doesn't like what i'm doing or when he gets something wrong or when he does something crazy or he says something crazy -- or tweets something that's just beyond the pale. all of a sudden he doesn't like me. during the campaign i was told that people, the only people that the campaign wanted to come on my show were the paid cnn contributors because they were afraid that the other people who were possibly going to be in the administration, work with donald trump, would be embarrassed bays challenged them in interviews. well, if you don't want to be challenged in interviews, then you need not be running for political office or to work for someone who's going to be president of the united states. that's the long and short of it.

i think he started out by calling me a racist and then what it ends up is again the conversation i've been having on the air with chris cuomo and others is that it is complete projection. if you look at this president, whatever he says, he is projecting. it's what he believes about himself. >> i was happy, though, that melania trump came out with a statement in support of what lebron james is doing in akron, ohio. >> i think that's great that melania trump did that. i give her credit for it. i don't know if we should read too much into it because i think we have to remember she was i abirther too. >> we'll see you later tonight. >> yes. >> 10:00 p.m. eastern. maybe we'll get the final results in ohio and some of the other key races that we're going to be watching. cnn's special coverage throughout the night on all of that. much more news right after this. , we really pride ourselves on making it easy for you to get your windshield fixed. with safelite, you can see exactly when we'll be there. saving you time for what you love most. >> kids: whoa! >> kids vo: ♪ safelite repair, safelite replace ♪

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we're following breaking news in northern california. right now a record-breaking wildfire, now around 300,000 acres, the largest in the state's history. the previous record-setting blaze was only eight months ago. cnbc stephanie elam is on the scene for us tonight. this fire is burning in some rough, very dry terrain. update our viewers. >> reporter: it's very true, wolf. this is what we're looking at. we are standing here in the midst of the mendocino complex fire. and really it's two fires that started at almost the same time very close to each other that they are now dealing with here. if you think about how large this is, you're talking about an

area larger than all of new york citition five boroughs put together. it's a massive amount of land but it is very, very remote, very rural. but all along when you take a look at just this fire and you look through the state, there are 17 fires that are burning. one just cropping up yesterday afternoon in orange in & riverside counties, the holy fire. this is what they're dealing with across the state. as far as this fire is concerned, you can see behind me some of that devastation. this fire here they say they have plenty of water to fight this fire despite what the president tweeted about there not being enough water resources. they say they don't know what they're talking about since the shasta lake which is a reservoir here is 2/3 and that's what they're using, wolf. >> stephanie, thanks very much. chief ken pimmlot is the director of cal fire and he joins us on the phone right now. thanks so much for joining us. difference an update on the progress you're making. what are the biggest challenges right now, you and the men and women you are facing? >> we have over 14,000 firefighters on the fire lines throughout california. that's over half of the nearly

27,000 firefighters that are fighting fires across the western united states. over 585,000 acres have burned since this siege began several weeks ago. we're certainly making progress. many of the fires we're able to bring closer to containment including the carr fire that stephanie was just talking about there earlier propp but we're a long way from being done. the challenges we're facing is certainly very high temperatures, low humidities, and these onshore coastal winds that will pick up. and as you know, there's a heat wave in southern california right now and for the next several days. >> are you getting the help you need from the federal government, ken? >> we absolutely are. the coordination that's going on every day, not just here in california but throughout the western united states, we are working very closely with all of our partners, federal, state, and local, as well interagency coordination center in boise where all the resources are coordinated for the country in terms of wildland firefighting.

we are constantly sharing and making sure we have the ability to share critical resources. >> the president, president trump, says the situation is being made worse because environmental laws out in california are preventing readily available water from being used to fight the wildfires. is that true? >> we have plenty of water, astephanie said, to fight fires. many lakes we're accessing from helicopters to drop that water on the fires and our fire engines have access to water on the ground. and water sis of course just on of the many tools we use to fight fire. we drop retardants from air tankers. we have access to all of that and are readily deploying that on all of these fires. and i know you've been a firefighter for 30 years. is climate change making these fires worse? >> absolutely. the changing climate is impacting. as a career firefighter and having so many other career firefighters on the front lines, we are all seeing the change. the kinds of fires we're having right now, these 100,000,

200,000-acre fires, those were the exception to the rules decades ago. now these are happening in multiple times every year. >> it's an awful situation. good luck to all the men and women at cal fire. all the men and women in california. ken, thank you so much. ken pimmlott for what you are doing. that's it. i'm wolf blitzer in "the situation room." erin burnett "outfront" starts now. "outfront" next, a special edition of "outfront." election night in america. polls closing in ohio minutes from now. can republicans hang on to a seat or could tonight be the beginning of a blue wave? also breaking this hour rick gates grilled by paul manafort's defense team. did he do more harm than good for the prosecution? let's go out front. good evening to all. i'm erin burnett. out front tonight, the breaking news. election night in america. polls closing just moments from now in ohio. one of five seats with important elections tonight. and ohio is where all the drama is this hour. a